MCMG BOARD MEETING MINUTES April 18, 2019

Derwood, Maryland

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ATTENDEES: Steve Dubik, Irene Eckstrand, Patricia Fraser, Len Friedman, Mandy Gordon, LeeAnne Gelletly, Julia Horman, Ken Hoyle, Betsy James, Carol Kosary, Sherry Marshall, Bebe McMeekin, Michael Parizer, Rani Parker, Melissa Siegel, Tom Stanton President Melissa Siegel called the meeting to order at 10:05 am. APPROVAL OF MINUTES The minutes of the March 21th meeting were approved as revised. COORDINATOR’S REPORT MCMG Coordinator, Steve Dubik, thanked LeeAnne Gelletly for setting up new Ask a Maser Gardener Plant Clinic Handouts and Banners. Noted that now others want updated materials; for example, CEWA wants a new sign with the new logo. Irene Eckstrand and Sherry Marshall have updated the Continuing Education policy. It is available online: (https://extension.umd.edu/sites/extension.umd.edu/files/_docs/programs/master-gardeners/Montgomery/2019MGWEBINARPOLICYv5.pdf) Steve noted that the VMS now has 43 site codes and more may be coming. He will be asking whether some way can be found to better organize the codes in a future update of the system such as including the option to organize in folders. The MG Only area of the website has been deleted. Still looking for ways to more efficiently print copies of the directory. The Ballard Room cabinets have now been cleaned and seven items have been selected to include in the swap bags. TREASURER’S REPORT (Attachment) Julia Horman reports that the reimbursement form will be updated (the new form can be located here (corrected with Julia’s correct address): https://extension.umd.edu/sites/extension.umd.edu/files/_docs/programs/master-gardeners/Montgomery/MC%20Master%20Gardener%20Request%20for%20Reimbursement_2019_1.pdf Julia reports that the EventBrite money from the Spring Conference has been credited. She also stated that Youth Gardening has received a grant. At the moment the budget is a comfortable position. OLD BUSINESS

MCMG BOARD MEETING MINUTES April 18, 2019

Derwood, Maryland

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None NEW BUSINESS Science Fair (Attachment) Len Friedman spoke on this year’s Science Montgomery event (http://www.sciencemontgomery.org/index.cfm) a non-profit science fair endeavor not associated with MCPS. This event has been previously approved by the Board for volunteer hours (although Steve does not want judging Science Fairs to become the only way someone earns hours). This year the MCMG’s sponsored an award, however, Steve pointed out issues with continued sponsorship as it creates a perception that other events may also expect sponsorships in the future, and it would require a sign-off at a level above Steve. Len was encouraged to seek out other companies (American Plant was mentioned) to provide funding for awards. REPORTS AND ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM PROGRAM DIRECTORS Tom Stanton, Program Director for Hands on Education, reported Gleaning is preparing for the growing (and gleaning) season. Sherry Marshall, Program Director for Gardens (Attachment), reports that all the gardens are overjoyed that Spring has arrived! Everyone is busy. The Woodend Demo Garden is still awaiting finalization of their Letter of Intent. LeeAnne Gelletly, Program Director for MG Communications, reported that she is busily replacing/updating handouts. The latest includes an update on non-native invasives based on M-NCPPC information as well as a combination of the sunny and shady plant handouts. She is also working with Steve on a new Derwood Demo Garden sign. Many Gordon, Program Director for Major Education Events, reported that GIEI is ready. They are still filling out the last of their volunteers. The meeting adjourned at 11:20 am Respectfully submitted, Carol Kosary Secretary

Revenue - General

Dues - 2019 5,635.00

Donations - General 210.00

One-time Events 200.00

Urban Gardening 22.00

Youth Gardening 250.00

Subtotal - Revenue-General 6,317.00

Book Purchases Income

Expense

Cookbook Income 475.00

Expense 475.00

GIEI Income

Expense (150.00) (150.00)

Speakers Income 750.00

Expense 750.00

Spring Conference Income 4,968.81

Expense (1,730.32) 3,238.49

Subtotal - Net Revnue - Income-generating Activities 4,313.49

Total Net Revenue 10,630.49

Expenses - Other Activities

CEWA

Derwood Garden 669.80

Digging Deeper

Fairgrounds Garden

Growing Gardeners (Mana)

Harvest Festival

NIH Garden 203.75

Plant Clinics

Therapeutic Horticulture 70.37

Urban Gardening 149.26

Youth Gardening

Subtotal Expenses - Other Activities 1,093.18

Expenses - General/Administrative

Board Approved Expenses:

balance - new storage shed 4,876.50

demolition - old storage shed 960.00

Membership

Newsletter 35.00

PR, Educ materials, Outreach 433.98

Program Education 638.98

Scholarship - Montgomery College 1,000.00

Subtotal Expenses - General/Administrative 7,944.46

Total Expenses - Other Activities & Gen/Admin 9,037.64

Net Return YTD 1,592.85

Cash Balance as of 4/16/19 25,802.32

MC Master Gardeners - YTD Financial Summary 2019

Revenue - Income-generating Activities - Net of Expenses

for the period Jan 1 - Apr 16, 2019

To: Steve Dubik and the MoCo MG Board March 23-24 was the 2019 Montgomery County Science Fair. It was very well attended. There were about 300 middle school (MS) and high school (HS) project posters being reviewed by over 150 Category and ISEF* Judges plus Community judges, representing 43 Organizations. It was impressive to see participation by so many highly educated individuals in the fields of behavioral and social sciences, biology, chemistry, computer sciences, engineering, mathematics and physics. Our MG group narrowed the large ‘Biology Category’ down to about 40 relevant projects (both MS and HS) dealing with horticultural sciences. After an initial individual review of each, we jointly selected 8 MS and 3 HS projects to consider for awards. The students who worked on these projects were then interviewed by us (our group divided into 3 pairs of 2MG each). They were judged on scientific methodology, oral and written presentations, originality, creativity, independence, effort, and learning experience. We then met as a group and scored each project/student to decide on who would receive 1st, 2nd, 3rd and honorable mention awards. The first prize went to a MS student who made flat paper-like sheets from pulverized slurries of backyard weeds. She developed tests to measure the strength of the final products as well as ink penetration and spread on them. Second prize went to a MS student who studied how various cyanobacteria impacts algae in reducing carbon dioxide and generating oxygen in a closed reactor, which he built. The third prize went to a HS student who studied how several different chloride salts impacted currently used seaweed based biostimulants used to promote plant growth. The honorable mention was awarded to a MS student who used different commonly available solutions (like orange juice and vinegar), when added to water, could affect tomato plant growth and flowering. Other projects which stood out dealt with the effect of various types of music on plant growth, and the use of various neem products (e.g., powder, oil, leaves) as anti-bacterial and anti-fungal agents. The entire event was very impressive and well-done, and the FDA building in which the event was held was beautifully designed and well-suited for this activity. It was learning experience for us, as judges, as well as an opportunity to interact and teach students more about horticultural, This activity is directly related to our educational Mission and impacts County residents. The cost is extremely low; in-house printing of 4 paper awards and giving 3 winners an inexpensive prize, amounting to approximately $250 total. If interested, the 2019 awards lists are now posted on the ScienceMontgomery website. Look at the red line and click on the links where it says ‘here’ and ‘here’. The first link is for Category Awards and the second link is for Community

Awards. It shows that all Organizations give certificates and plus some gift. (The Master Gardener portion is misaligned.) http://www.sciencemontgomery.org/ Steve approved our participation this year as a Community Organization, but has had second thoughts about our future participation. He was not fully apprised of the commitment which needs to be made if MG participates as a Community Organization. Please see the attached WORD document which provides: Information for Community Organizations An e-mail from the Director of MongomeryScience regarding participation An e-mail from the 1st place winner’s mother A list of participating Community Organizations Steve has agreed that this activity falls within our Mission and is OK with MG getting volunteer hours to serve as judges. However, awarding certificates and small prizes is a concern since it sets a precedent. In doing on-line research we have found that Steve is nearly 100% correct. Master Gardener and 4H Organizations (both are within University Extensions), both in and out of state, give internal certificates and awards. External certificates and awards are very uncommon. For example, the University of Arkansas MG gives awards; “Friend of MG – Individual” and “Friend of MG – business”. The University of Tennessee gives “Outstanding Contributing Partner award” to recognize organizations or individuals who are not MG but provide support to the MG mission. (This type of recognition may be something MoCo MG may wish to discuss/consider in the future.) So, how can Steve and the Board agree for future MoCo MG participation? (The attached PDF shows the importance of the Fair.) 1. Make an exception in the case of MontgomeryScience, and allow future

participation of MoCo MG in ScienceMontgomery with certificates and small gifts to the winners. This may be unusual and an exception but MoCo MG has previously introduced new and unique activities (e,g,, Therapeutic Horticulture, awarding an intern a scholarship) and this could be another way to show our leadership in in the County in advancing our Mission. The concern that this might be done by other groups within MoCo MG is real, but Steve and the Board would have to reviews and approve each of them on an individual basis.

2. A second way is to approve our continuation as a Community Organization but provide winners with letters of recognition for ‘bronze’, ‘silver’ and ‘gold’ level projects, instead of more formal awards or certificates. They can be signed on-site by the MG judges and not the MoCo MG Coordinator and

President (unless they want to sign this). The recipients would each get a MG Handbook (or alternative MG branded merchandise) or a small horticulture related gift. Participating this way would maintain the Organization’s visibility amongst peer groups.

3. A third way is to allow MG to get volunteer hours; they would participate with others as Category judges. The MoCo MG would NOT be recognized as a Community Organization. No awards, certificates or gifts would be distributed. The downside to this approach is that the MoCo MG will receive little exposure to the broader scientific community; judge names just indicate an affiliation next to them.

We hope you approve proceeding with options 1 or 2 above (or some combination of the two). Submitted by Ram Narula and Len Friedman for the 2019 MontgomeryScience MG judges.

From the MontgomeryScience Website

Community Awards Overview

Whether this is the first time your organization has participated in the Montgomery County Science Fair or the 20th time, ScienceMONTGOMERY would like to thank you and your organization for providing Community Awards such as certificates, plaques, cash, or other awards to student fair participants.

Please register your organization for the March 23, 2019 Fair between October 1, 2018 and February 24, 2019. In addition to

registering the organization, each individual community awards judge must register. This is critical for us to know how many judges are expected, how to arrange seating, etc.

ScienceMONTGOMERY will have a limited capacity to select some student awards should your group not be able to provide Community Award judges. Award Contact Persons please indicate whether or not you will be able to judge your award when registering your organization.

Awards judging will begin with check in between 8:45-9:45 am. Judging begins with a preview period when the students are not present, from 9:45 a.m.-11:45 am. The students will be present for their interviews in the afternoon (1-4 p.m.) A lunch and snacks will be provided. Please see the Fair Schedule for additional details.

Once your organization has chosen your winners and turned in the certificates or other award, filled in with the names of your winners and/or project titles, you are free to leave.

All materials to be awarded must be left with us by 5 PM Saturday, clearly marked on the outside with the name of the student to whom it will be awarded at Sunday’s Award Ceremony. All awards must include the name of a contact person with email address for the student to contact with any questions about his/her award.

We invite you to have a representative on stage with us at the Awards Ceremony, on Sunday from 2-4 PM. Please let us know by March 1, 2019 if representatives will be present at the ceremony. Your awards winners will enjoy shaking hands and thanking you personally as they come onstage to receive your award. For time considerations, all awards will be announced by our ScienceMONTGOMERY emcee.

To have your organization become a Fair Sponsor, review the information under the Sponsor tab or contact us at president@sciencemontgomery.org. ScienceMONTGOMERY welcomes you and extends thanks for your Association’s continued interest and support of our science fair.

From the President of MontgomeryScience

From: Patricia Miller <patmiller822@gmail.com> Date: March 28, 2019 at 7:07:20 PM EDT To: Ram G Narula <rgnarula@aol.com>, P Sundareshwar <pvsundare@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Input needed

I'm not sure why giving certificates would be a problem. If you are judging, presumably you plan to offer an award. If you choose to offer some monetary prize or gardening accoutrement instead of a certificate, you could certainly do that. We don't have any other organizations that don't offer certificates in addition to whatever prize they offer: dinner with the organization, participation in another competition, and/or gift cards/cash. We have organizations that participate for a while and then drop out and we have organizations that have partnered with ScienceMONTGOMERY for many years. As far as the fair is concerned, you are not committed for any year except the one for which you signed up.

E-mail from the mother of the first place winner to the Fair Director

Thank you for all you do to make the science fair a success! I am sure it takes a lot of hard work. I also hope you can extend a special thanks to the Montgomery County Master Gardeners. My daughter, Grace, was feeling a little down about her Honorable Mention this year, and winning 1st place from them made her feel so special. She has already set up her Grow Light! (Also, they may be happy to know that she is an avid gardener with her own raised bed).

Thanks again, and hopefully see you next year.

Gretchen Weigel Doughty www.GretchenCreative.com 301-920-1152/646-320-2277

Community Organizations Presenting Awards in 2019

The Montgomery County Science Fair committee extends its sincere thanks to the following community and regional organizations.

The Air Force Research Laboratory American lndustrial Hygiene Association Potomac Section American lnstitute of Aeronautics and Astronautics National Capital Section American Meteorological Society American Psychological Association (APA) American Society of Mechanical Engineers ASM Materials Education Foundation Association for Women Geoscientists AstraZeneca BeSTEM ! Summer Camp Biophysical Society Chesapeake Water Environment Association Clean Air Partners American Nuclear Society - Washington DC Section (DC-ANS) DC Commissioned Officers Association/US Public Health Service Department of The Navy Federal Water Quality Association Geological Society of Washington GWIS NCC IEEE Washington Section lntel Excellence in Computer Science Award MIT Club of Washington DC Montgomery County Master Gardeners MRl Global Mu Alpha Theta NASA National Capital Astronomers NIST Sigma Xi The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) The Office of Naval Research Optical Society of America & IEEE Photonics QIAGEN RICOH Rockville Science Center, lnc. Society for ln Vitro Biology Sigma Xi- FDA Chapter Stockholm Junior Water Prize The Aerospace Corporation U.S. Metric Association Award U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission Washington Statistical Society West Nottingham Academy Yale Science and Engineering Association INC

Master Gardener Demo Gardeners Report to the Board – April 2019 Sherry Marshall, Program Director National Library of Medicine Herb Garden (Karen Kim) The NLM Herb garden is coming alive with bloodroot blooms, mayapple and costmary. Busy next few weeks with planning, buying and planting before our April 25 take your child to work day event. Good/bad? Educational garden game, seed planting station, and a herb plant treasure hunt planned for the participants. Lots of great MG volunteers and 3 diligent MG interns! Derwood Demo Garden – Susan Kirby & Carol Conrad The Derwood Demo Garden opened for the growing season on Tuesday, April 2. Many of our experienced gardeners returned, and it was great to see them. We welcomed about 15 interns on April 9. We hope that many of them will join us this summer. On another note, the temporary storage facility has been emptied and returned to the Friends of the Agricultural History Farm Park. The new shed is coming together very nicely. We are all pleased to have new, organized storage space. Fairgrounds Demo Garden – Michael Parizer & Carole Funger The fairgrounds group has met twice so far. We spent our time getting the demo garden, the Heritage House garden and the 4-H garden ready for the new planting season. In addition, we will be installing three trellises to form a barrier between the demo garden and the chainsaw sculpture group. Our plan is to install appropriate vining plants at the trellises. MG/Woodend Demo Garden – Larry Himelfarb, Janet Owens, Jenny Brown Audubon is now reviewing the Letter of Intention between ANS and the MoCo Master Gardeners for the new activity. We are planning to hold an orientation meeting at ANS in late April to introduce potential MG volunteers who would work at the site on Wednesday mornings. Walter Reed Healing Garden – Edith Boehler We small group of MGs went to assess the Healing Garden and do a bit of weeding the last week of March. The garden wasn't in bad shape, but signs of their noxious weeds, especially thistle, were just beginning. The daffodils we planted in the fall and hellebore were looking great, there was some deer damage on the fig tree, but happily only minimal nibbling of the azaleas we planted last year. We met with Ashley our USO contact and Artemis, an army reservist who owns a lawn company and would like to help with the healing garden. Artemis is trying to organize a group of landscapers to do a spring clean up of the garden, which may possibly happen on April 20. We peeled up the large plastic sheet we put over the bed behind the back wall of the garden and there are A LOT of thistles growing despite the lack of sun and water, so we plan to leave the plastic on there at least through the spring. Our first corporate work day is Wed April 17. We will be weeding and plan to move/remove tall grasses from one of the central beds so we can plant lower shrubs (still looking for deer resistant suggestions) to open up the garden in the summer. As always, if you are splitting relatively deer-resistant plants this spring, we will definitely be looking for more evergreens to plant. Also, the USO would like us to plant annuals if possible, so if anyone is growing flowers from seed and has extra, we would love them. Photo of garden: